Skateboarding in the Second City

party

“This one guest skater is a party boy in white v-neck with both kness ripped out of jeans who does a chill switch line.”

A combination of today’s 70-degree forecast, shipping t-shirts, and late night Chris Paul bank shots / torrid Golden State shooting nights threw off our already loose editorial calendar. In consolation, one of the few widely circulated Chicago videos in recent memory was uploaded to YouTube yesterday.

You might remember Chity from Galen Dekemper’s 50,000+ word review play-by-play, in which he felt that “these guys kick it with girls who go to music shows” and offered commentary on a myriad of outfits worn in the video. We’re all waiting to see if unnecessarily riding on long grates will emerge as a space-filling novelty trick in the same way unnecessary powerslides have become acceptable for chino-wearing skateboarders in urban environments.

Midwestern videos have continued to develop followings outside their immediate scenes in recent years, and Chity is a solid companion piece to Debris, Homegrown, St. Losers or whatever your favorite may be. Whether or not the midwest skate video renaissance will come in contact with the Chicago rap renissance remains to be seen, but we won’t get our hopes up. And since the Bulls are the only team left in the league that doesn’t take shit from the Heat — let’s go Bulls.

“On a first watching, it may be difficult to remember which white skater was doing which tricks where, but differences emerge after the repeated viewings this video encourages.”

Extended Winter Viewing: Stop Fakin’ 2 (in full)

dave fs nose wny

Jersey David. Photo by Jason Lecras.

With another log thrown on the “OMG is Mark Suciu #authentic?” fire today (and with no visible start of spring in sight), we would like to momentarily redirect your attention to another Philadelphia-area media institution. Stop Fakin’ 2 came out last summer, and you’ve likely seen some of its sections, as it was released via the “Few parts on YouTube, $10 for the DVD” business model favored by independent skate video directors today. It was the first independent project of 2012 to propel the “Love Park is back” narrative, while also serving as a reminder that Pulaski Park never left.

The entire video is now online in full. While we have fawned over Mark Suciu’s unprecedented footage-gathering capabilities, we have too easily forgotten that Stop Fakin’ 2 boasted one of three parts that Jersey Dave released in 2012. And in the realm of cameos: Sabotage may have had a switch 360 flipping Brian Wenning’s return to Love Park, but it sure as hell didn’t feature an appearance from the far more legendary Mr. Z.

If you’re an old soul and still want the DVD, you can buy it here.

Another New York Video With the Word “Lurk” in the Title

Not to be confused with Lurkers. “Lurking” has fond associations around here.

Steady Lurking is a video by Mike Williams, mostly filmed in New York and outlying areas. You wouldn’t notice it if you spend any time at the Chinatown and Tribeca skateparks or 12th & A, but a lot of young kids still skate and film at actual “spots” in this city. It’s a good sign for whatever the next generation of New York-based skate videos turns out to be. (Sidebar: Cameras should be banned from every skatepark except Chelsea. iPhone/GoPro at 12th & A is okay…especially if you’re doing a longways ollie over the picnic table.) While we concluded that skaters are too happy being garbage to ever skate to “Tip Drill” on Twitter the other night, at least this video pays homage to two Ricks at the same time (any Rick James use is a x2 Rick homage), and solves the “Has anyone skated to ‘Mr. Sandman?'” question that any skaters who watched the 2012 NBA post-season asked themselves every time *that* damn commercial came on.

Fun video. Embedded below in two parts. Buy Tall Will a drink from the deli when you see him at Lenox.

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Weekend Viewing: A Video Called “Video.”

It looks like a lot more people have been serving Jerry Duty in some shape or form (“The act of riding around with Mraz and looking out while he creates masterpieces.” — Lurker Lou, in regards to a fit punishment for crimes like this.) There are a lot of quick-crete spots in New York now. This new straight-to-Vimeo release by John Wilson has like sixty or eighty of them. It solves the mystery of why that awful median curved ledge over cobblestones on the way to Three-Up Three-Down via Canal Street is waxed (see 8:39.)

The last part is edited to a 1970s Dizzy Gillespie song that has been in the “maybe one day this could work great for a skate edit” pile for years. Use an Akinyele / Large Professor sample source (Fun Fact: Vagina Diner is Noreaga’s vote for the greatest rap album of all time), end your part off with a pop shove-it, and win.

Have a good weekend.

Featuring Pat Galloway, Paul Tucci, Andrew Wilson, Dylan James, Mitchell Wilson, Sloan Palder, Kevin Sanders, Jordan Gesko, Big Zachy Gesko, John Gardner, Kevin Winters, Jt Gleason, Cole Geragi, Nik Stain, Conor Prunty, Brad Hendrickson, Eric Elliot, Bill Pierce, Ja Burton, Riot Chris, Phil Jackson, Fritz Mead, Paul Coots, TJ Larsen, Corey Rubin (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and Colin Sussingham
Filmed by Johnny Wilson
Filmed on vx1000 and Canon 310xl
Filmed in the North East
Filmed from Sept. ’11 to June ’12

Useless Times – The Dobbin Block Video

If there’s one thing you could expect to be released almost a half-decade late, it’s a New York skate house-endorsed skateboard video. Useless Times can now be placed alongside other defining video Vimeo documents of the previous decade’s “spots-that-aren’t-spots” movement. It also might be the first skate video to embrace Chris Brown, and all the hard work he has put into steering misguided urban teenagers to scooters and away from skateboards. We don’t have many requests for greater skate industry music supervision in 2012 — most of our wishes will inevitably go unfulfilled as editors queue up tracks off the Drive soundtrack 11 months after the fact — we’re just hoping that at least one major skateboarder skates to C. Breeze before the world ends this December.

The video is a compilation of footage from over the past five or so years. Features James Frankhouse (with a part full of quintessential #phatstylez moments), Jeff Ricker, Sweet Waste, Dave Caddo, Alex Davis, Jon Newport, Yelawolf, Conor Fay, Kevin Brennan, Jerry Mraz, Mike Mike, Lurker Lou, Jahmal Williams, 80s Joe, Curtis Rapp, and Greg Huff.

Take your time, take your time, take your sexy time…”